Use of unmanned systems is rapidly growing within the military and civilian sectors in a variety of roles including reconnaissance, surveillance, explosive ordinance disposal (EOD), and force-protection and perimeter security. As utilization of these systems grows at an ever increasing rate, the need for unmanned systems teaming and inter-system collaboration becomes apparent. Collaboration provides a means of enhancing individual system capabilities through relevant data exchange that contributes to cooperative behaviors between systems and enables new capabilities not possible if the systems operate independently. A collaborative networked approach to development holds the promise of adding mission capability while simultaneously reducing the workload of system operators. The Joint Collaborative Technology Experiment (JCTE) joins individual technology development efforts within the Air Force, Navy, and Army to demonstrate the potential benefits of interoperable multiple system collaboration in a force-protection application. JCTE participants are the Air Force Research Laboratory, Materials and Manufacturing Directorate, Airbase Technologies Division, Force Protection Branch (AFRL/RXQF); the Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development, and Engineering Center Software Engineering Directorate (AMRDEC SED); and the Space and Naval Warfare Systems Center - Pacific (SSC Pacific) Unmanned Systems Branch operating with funding provided by the Joint Ground Robotics Enterprise (JGRE). This paper will describe the efforts to date in system development by the three partner organizations, development of collaborative behaviors and experimentation in the force-protection application, results and lessons learned at a technical demonstration, simulation results, and a path forward for future work.

Date Published: 30 April 2009
PDF: 14 pages
Proc. SPIE 7332, Unmanned Systems Technology XI, 73321N (30 April 2009); doi: 10.1117/12.818341

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7332:
Unmanned Systems Technology XI
Grant R. Gerhart; Douglas W. Gage; Charles M. Shoemaker, Editor(s)